New video release on water cooperation

A full session at Stockholm World Water Week yesterday saw the official unveiling of plans and communication tools to help promote 2013 as the UN’s International Year of Water Cooperation.

Photo: UNESCO

The objective of the International Year is to raise awareness on the potential for improved water cooperation, and on the challenges facing water management with increasing demands for water access, allocation and services.

For IUCN, this focus on Water Cooperation comes at a time when the first phase of its BRIDGE – Building River Dialogue and Governance, project is showing practical results in improving transboundary cooperation and dialogue in 9 river basins across the world.

“Working together with our partners, Members, and the Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC) through the BRIDGE project, IUCN is building water governance capacities through learning, demonstration, leadership, and consensus-building. In the Sixaola River Basin on the Costa Rica-Panama border, new strategic partnerships have already been established and transboundary river committees empowered to support water cooperation”, says Mark Smith, Director IUCN Global Water Programme.

During the UNESCO organized workshop at Stockholm Water Week, Alejandro Iza, Director IUCN Environmental Law Centre stated a clear 16 word message, “Cooperation, peace, justice, human rights, social inclusion, development, and certainty. Law is a serious matter, take it seriously.”

Concurrently, a video on the BRIDGE transboundary governance project in Sixaola was released and made available on YouTube. The 5- minute video, presented by SDC’s François Munger, focuses on solutions put forward for water dialogue and governance on the Costa Rica-Panama border. It puts donor and community members in front of the camera who share their views on water cooperation and environmental challenges the region faces, such as climate change impacts and frequent flash flooding.

This video, along with a range of upcoming new products and events, will highlight water cooperation initiatives and education tools towards and during the 2013 International Year of Water Cooperation.